by Julia Willard | Jul 30, 2015 | Inspiration |
Here at The Paris Women of Success, we love to encourage each other to go for our respective dreams and follow where the adventurous path leads. We’re just one more example of how women supporting women is a powerful force and only leads to wonderful changes in the world. We nurture each other’s individual gifts and motivate one another to push through rough patches. In the last year alone, we’ve had businesses started, books released, businesses revamped, international moves, and new partnerships forged, to name a few. We welcome you to join us in supporting the women around you and welcoming the adventure that lies before you. Feel free to share your stories. “She decided to free herself, dance into the wind, create a new language. And birds fluttered around her, writing “yes” in the sky.” ~ Monique...
by Rebecca Earley | May 18, 2015 | Inspiration |
So I have been on the pursuit of happiness for some time now. I have been bulldozing through my life and uprooting all that is not good enough. It is a blind faith that has no real direction but instinct. You have no idea what the future will hold, but you trust that there is something better. Over the course of my recent trip to Portugal, happiness manifested itself in various forms. It was something as simple as sunshine on my face and blue skies with no clouds in sight. Or discovering new places and being taken aback by their beauty. To continuing down an unknown path only to discover one of the most amazing surprises at the end, like a gorgeous sunset overlooking Lisbon and one of the best wine bars I have ever experienced. It has been meeting new people who are kind when I am feeling lonely, like the two Belgians that shared breakfast with me, or Mr. João, at O João‘s restaurant in Lagos who beheaded and deboned my fish, and shared his memories of traveling to the States. It has been something as simple as having a really great meal, a great glass of wine, or tea and strawberries with whipped cream, while enjoying an amazing view, and realizing that I had nowhere else to be except for a date with my book in that moment. But I did not witness what I would call “pure happiness” until I was in the waiting room of the private hospital of Lagos, after my fragile spine had been thrown out again. I was surrounded by elderly couples all sitting...
by My Paris Story | May 8, 2015 | Inspiration |
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by Rebecca Earley | Mar 24, 2015 | Inspiration |
What is it to rebuild your core? When everything falls to pieces. Unraveling, ever so slowly, down the spindle, like yarn that has lost its way. Do you build it back, one by one, with an ever cautious care and patience? Or do you throw it in, all at once, saying, “You’re stronger than this. Onward.” No, the spirit is much too fragile for force. It needs your attention, and ever loving care. Disk by disk, one vertebra a time, the spine regains it strength. But only when it knows that you are listening. Do you hear me? Do you feel me? Are you listening? I am you, and you are I. We have to work together, or we will no longer stand. We will crumble. One by one, step by step, you start to regain strength. You take a deep breath and feel your organs start to support themselves, the ribs expanding like wings, allowing for room to grow. The pain weakens and you start to hear the signs of your own body telling you, that’s enough. Slow down. Let’s do this together. And then one day, you have refound strength. Life still comes and goes, like waves, some more violent than others. But somehow you’re more fluid, more flexible, to bend and turn and let the waves carry you, instead of fighting against them. But how do you rebuild the heart? The most fragile of them all, where the waves are deep inside, and knock you over to your knees. Newly supported by its frame, will it be enough? Day by day, step by step… What is...
by Sanda Taranu Boucheron | Jan 27, 2015 | Inspiration |
I am not Charlie Or about the freedom to do vs the freedom to be I have met my dear friend Margot, amazing writer and author of the previous post “The Freedom to Offend” last week over lunch. We talked a bit about the article in progress, the events, world issues (and us, well of course). We agreed the topic would be even more interesting if open to discussion. Just for the heck of it. Well, elle est confused, je suis confused aussi. Any problem on the table – as clear as it may seem at a first glance-, put in front of another point of view becomes a riddle. Should we need the freedom to feel we are better than others, in other words to offend; the freedom to become dependant on something – like porn or marihuana for example- in order to feel free ( isn’t that called a pleonasm btw?) And the theorem can be applied to a countless number of equations. Endless ways of splitting the hair in four, as an old Romanian saying would go. I often refrain from commenting on opinions different from my own because I believe everyone has the right to feel and believe as they find fit, as long as that does not hurt anyone. And maybe because I am not sure my point is the good one given I do not always necessarily study the case from all angles. But hey, sometimes is fun to have “elevated” conversations like this one, so hop on. I felt, undoubtedly like pretty much any human being on the planet, that the attacks...
by Julia Willard | Jan 16, 2015 | Inspiration |
Happy New Year! The year 2014 was an exciting year for the authors of My Paris Story, the book, both as a group as well as individually. Many of us had huge successes that we have discussed on our own websites and blogs. I encourage you to look at our Author Page and check them out. ~~~~~~~ January is always a time to reflect and look closely at what has been achieved in the previous year, as well as to look forward to what we would like to bring into our lives in the coming year. We know that many of our readers have a special connection with Paris – whether you wish to move to Paris at some point or you just love to live vicariously through those of us who live here already. Our book is a testament to how that can become anyone’s reality – even for those who have never foresaw a move here. So what do you wish to create in 2015? A newfound zest for life? Greater confidence in yourself? More opportunities for discovering new things about yourself? A deeper spiritual practice? These are all noble goals and I’m guessing at least one of them is close to a goal you already had in mind for 2015. But what if we really zeroed in on what you might be seeking through these or any other number of goals… What if we just said, ‘screw it, let’s just surrender’? You see, nowhere in My Paris Story do you find a story of one of us fighting to get to Paris. We all just let go, some earlier in the process...
